


Love Looks Like . . .

by Moit



Series: Pinto Tumblr Drabbles [8]
Category: Star Trek RPF
Genre: Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Sickfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-12
Updated: 2016-05-12
Packaged: 2018-07-12 10:39:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 566
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7099510
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Moit/pseuds/Moit
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It starts with a cough as they’re getting ready for bed.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Love Looks Like . . .

**Author's Note:**

  * For [captainkatieb](https://archiveofourown.org/users/captainkatieb/gifts).



> Pinto calls for aid and Moit delivers.

It starts with a cough as they’re getting ready for bed.

“You okay?” Chris gives him a sidelong glance that Zach waves away.

“Just a tickle in my throat.”

They finish brushing and washing and curl up in bed together like spoons in a drawer. Just as Chris is falling asleep, he feels Zach tense against him, pull away, and begin coughing again.

Squinting into the darkness behind him, Chris says, “Are you sure you’re okay?”

“Yeah, I’m just gonna go get a glass of water.” Zach presses a kiss into Chris’s bare shoulder. “Go back to sleep.”

He returns a moment later, sets the glass on the nightstand, and crawls back into bed. Chris is facing him now, so he rolls onto his left side and allows his boyfriend to spoon him. In the warmth of each other’s arms, they finally fall asleep.

Chris is in the middle of a dream about flying across the Atlantic in a sports car with JJ when the sound of coughing wakes him up. By the time he manages to pull himself out of the dream and sit up, Zach is halfway across the floor and headed for the bathroom. With a sigh, Chris drops back down onto his pillow and closes his eyes.

He sits back up when he hears the sound of retching.

Wearing only a thin pair of pajama bottoms— _Mine_ , Chris notices—Zach drops the lid of the toilet, wipes his mouth, and flushes. He sits back against the sink cabinet. His skin his pale and damp.

“Are you sick?” Chris squats down and touches the back of his hand to Zach’s forehead. “You don’t feel hot.”

“I don’t know.” Zach looks miserable as he presses his cheek into the cool wood of the cabinet. “I feel like shit. I just want to lay down here.”

Chris watches him eye the cold tile floor, and he must be sick, because Zach gets weird about things like keeping his toothbrush _inside_ the drawer.

“I have a better idea.”

He leaves the bathroom long enough to retrieve Zach’s yoga mat from the living room. It will need scrubbed later, but for now, it’s better than Zach lying shirtless on the bathroom floor.

When he gets back, he finds that Zach hasn’t moved. His eyes are closed, and he looks like he could be sleeping against the cabinet.

“Babe?”

Zach jerks and his eyes open.

Chris unrolls the mat and helps Zach unroll his long limbs into Savasana. When that’s done, he rings a rag out in cold water and tucks it around Zach’s neck.

Chris sits down cross-legged next to Zach and runs a hand through his hair. “How’s that?”

“Good.” Zach catches Chris’s wrist. He presses a hand to the soft skin of Chris’s palm and lays it against his cheek.

Smiling to himself, Chris leans back against the cabinet as his thumb makes slow strokes over Zach’s stubbled cheek.

Chris wakes the next morning with his face pressed into the bathroom tile and Zach curled up behind him, his nose tucked into the curve of Chris’s neck, tickling the short hairs there with every breath.

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” Chris sighs. His back is going to kill him when he gets up.

Then Zach murmurs something in his sleep, and Chris’s heart melts. He can handle an achy back for the day.


End file.
